Cigar Blast from the Past

In 1996 I was the Democratic Student Coordinator on the campus of my college in Rindge, NH, Franklin Pierce College. I got an opportunity to meet President Clinton during his run for a second term. I volunteered to drive a van in his motorcade which held part of the press corps (I believe I had CBS news reporters). The moment was fairly unremarkable, but it was something my father was very proud of and he related the story of a young Clinton meeting President Kennedy when he was just a few years younger than I was and how such encounters inspire youth to grow up to be the men they admire most. I was pretty cynical at the time, still am, and the moment was not one that inspired me to great political aspirations, but from then on I did declare my future candidacy to anyone and everyone (after I turned 35) and I even voted for myself as a write-in candidate for president that year. I was 18 and it was my first national election and I voted for myself.